On a recent chilly morning, Jarrod Burguan, coffee mug in hand, walked the second floor halls of the San Bernardino Police Department stopping to get updates by a member of his executive staff.

The tall and broad-shouldered chief of police wearing a jacket with the police logo on the left breast, settled into his office where the sounds of the police scanner intermingled with Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl” playing in the background.

During a rare quiet moment, Burguan reflected on how he and the city he is tasked with protecting, were thrust into the national spotlight nearly a year ago. The late morning of Dec. 2 when a Redlands couple entered the Inland Regional Center’s conference room and opened fire on dozens of San Bernardino County employees killing 14 and wounding 22 others .

He acknowledged San Bernardino has now found an unenviable place on the global stage alongside cities like Boston, Paris and New York, cities that have been touched by terror.

However, Burguan, who joined the department in 1992, sees something more intimate and personal that may have fallen by the wayside in the frenzy to cover what at that time was called the deadliest terrorist attack in this country since 9/11.

“You have people that were victims that day and you have family members that lost loved ones that day and that day takes on a different meaning to them,” said Burguan who grew up in Rialto, only a few miles from San Bernardino. “They are almost on the side listening to all this stuff. And I think in some ways it’s incredibly hurtful to them.”

Burguan said survivors have expressed how misinformation, speculation and even leaked classified data released — sometimes without warning — have pained them as the investigation continues.

In the days and months following last year’s attack, Burguan and other law enforcement leaders, including San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon and Redlands Police Chief Mark Garcia, have participated in dozens of lessons-learned debriefings and speaking engagements. Across the country, they were sharing their perspectives on the operations that fell into place minutes after Syed Rizwan Farook, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, opened fire on a group of Farook’s colleagues.

During those presentations, Burguan has always expressed the importance of training and his pride in the men and women from his and neighboring departments who responded but on that morning in his office, the former Bloomington Christian High football player expressed his respect and gratitude for the survivors.

“It’s been a little therapeutic. It helps balance me out,” Burguan said. “You get used to talking about this incident from the standpoint of being a chief talking to other chiefs and organization and the lessons learned but it balances you out when you can go back and talk to those folks.”

Those who know Burguan are not surprised by his professional and personal response.

“I think Jarrod is a good leader at the time of this event and up until now,” said Garcia who served alongside Burguan at the San Bernardino Police Department. “It’s always important to keep the focus on the victims and survivors.”

In the more than 20 years in the department and his nearly three years as chief, Burguan is no stranger to speaking to victims of crimes, but he has felt a connection to those left to live in the wake of the Inland Regional Center shooting.

“My past experience with victims, is obviously as a cop, you would go out, you would handle something, you would work with the victims throughout the trial … and go back to your police work or you get buried in all the other work you’re doing. This has been a little bit different,” he said adding that many times officers get “busy being busy.”

However, in the months following the deadly shooting, Burguan and other investigators have had extended and more personal interactions with dozens of survivors and family members.

“You talk to them, you ask them how they’re doing, how they’re kids are doing,” he said. “You see kids who have grown up over the past year.”